READY TO FLEDGE

 This summer we are being graced with a robin family growing out of an already used nest that sits above our motion light just beside our patio. Last year's nest of eggs did not survive the predator that left blue shell fragments, evidence of foul play throughout the yard. I was crushed. But who would have thought that nest would be reused this year by another family of robins! 

Well, I was pretty excited yet caution remained a part of my optimism. Aren't robin's eggs so beautiful? Every day I checked the nest and watched the yard, making sure mama was paying attention to her nest of soon-to-be babies. Then one day it happened. 

We had triplets!

Eventually we noticed there were only two left in the nest, indicating sadly, one of them did not survive. 

What happened to your brother?

And now they are grown and ready to fledge. Stay tuned.

IS IT FAIR OR IS IT NOT FAIR?

 Sorry.

I said I was coming back to blogging and then I dropped the ball. Bubbles loves when I throw the ball, but dropping it is lame. Anyway - here I am.

This past week was hot, less hot, then super hot again. Since Thursday was the best day for relief from the heat, hubby and I decided to check out the Greater Cumberland Fair, just like old times. Side Note: Now that I am older, I cannot hack the heat! Fair life is anything but fair. It is downright hot in the valley where the fair is set up. So, rarely do we go there. 

Besides, life is different now. I used to groan inside my soul about my own kids being grown, but now it is my grandkids who are grown. No little ones and that's tough. Bubbles has to fill that void. Sixteen years ago I was on top of the world. Remember the blog post I did about the fair? If not, you can find it RIGHT HERE. Ahhh, the good ol' days.

I'm 71 now. Hubby, 72. 

Our lives no longer follow fun vacations and grandchildren euphoria. Especially since the much older grandkids are not keen on sharing their lives on social media.

We now have a dog who keeps us with purpose and is cute, loves to play ball at the tennis courts, and loves to swim. We (hubby and I) are with aches, pains, and limitations. We go to church, watch tv, and eat good food. So yea, there's that. 

*sigh*

Anyway. Back to the fair. Temps were favorable for a quick once over at the fairgrounds to reminisce about better days. I kissed my dog goodbye, asked her to watch the house while we were gone, and I spread tiny treats over the table where she waits for our return home, and off we went. 

Here Bubbles sits and she will watch
out the window till we are home.

It took us about ten to fifteen minutes to get there, and I found a really great handicap accessible parking spot right by the entrance, limped into the grounds excitedly, only to find out the fair does not come to life until 5 PM. It was 2:30 PM.

We stopped at Livvy's on the way home from our brief, five-minute fair experience and got a gigantic soft serve ice cream in a chocolate dipped cone. This would not help my health, nor my weight. But hey, something had to save the day - right?

FIREWORK DISPLAY IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS IS CRUEL TO ANIMALS!

We live in a residential area and recently got new neighbors because the elderly neighbor that lived across from us passed. It was once a pretty peaceful setting here, even along the busy highway that, by the way, is busy. 

Our new neighbors are young and obviously do not respect that close neighbors may have dogs who would be terrified to go out at night and be surprised by a very professional looking firework display right above their home. 

Let me set the scene. It was bedtime. One last potty before bed so out we go. We are behind a privacy fence so - pretty safe, right? Bubbles got half way through her pee and suddenly a firework display shot into the sky lighting up our entire yard and sounding like the end of the world. My dog was so terrified - I thought for sure she'd escape our yard beneath the fence where there was an opening. My heart was pounding! She RAN and by then the yard was darkened. I called for her and she did not come and so I went to the door to wait for her HOPING that she would run to the door. Luckily she was there waiting on me. We went inside and she trembled for the longest time. I did too. 

Why! Why is it okay for people to put off fireworks in a residential area where houses are so close together? 

There was a time when I loved my home. But so much has changed here. It is time to move on. Husband would never agree to a move though, so I am trying my best to be content. 

The Fourth of July. 

Generally a day of celebration. I just did not feel it.

The Race Is On...

See Bubbles in action... Click the link below

Look at Bubbles Go!

Welcoming Victor

Below is a repost from January of last year followed by an update. RIP Vic, we will miss you.

An excerpt from my journal entry: April 28, 2015 

Vic arrived yesterday at around three o'clock.  He made a memorable entrance as he laid on the horn to announce his arrival.  I was not impressed.  And so, another chapter of my life begins.  

~~~~~~

We had opened our home based hearing aid business, All About Hearing, four years before Gary's Uncle Vic's arrival.  GP (my husband) and I did not work well together, so (to save our marriage) he voluntarily retired three years after opening, leaving me to solely run the business, and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE!  

Shortly before Vic's arrival, construction began.  I would need a bathroom for clients who were primarily elderly and often required to visit the restroom.  So, a hole was cut into the wall of the reception area to the garage since the apartment bathroom would belong to Vic, and a small half-bath was put on the far end of my garage to accommodate my customer's needs.  

The week of Vic's arrival was chaotic, with thick dust covering my office and reception area. Dust was visible everywhere and inhaled dangerously, halting business for a time.  

I was against this.  Let me count the reasons why.

1. So much storage space was gone now, and I had nowhere to go with everything.  

2. This lifelong commitment would end with this 82-year-old man needing much more than a place to stay.  

3. The business.  What would running a reputable business look like with life being lived on the other side of the door? I needed quiet to give hearing tests.  

4. The dust from the construction made me very sick for several months. 

5. Privacy would now be limited.  

6. Responsibility would be huge for GP now and more so 'down the road,' and since GP lived with so many anger issues and so much negativity already, I was not sure he could handle the gigantic commitment he was making. 

Lord, give me strength.

Ten years later, let's look at my list of concerns and how life unfolded:

1. There was so much clutter with nowhere to go with it that every day became a day of organizing for me.

2. The 82-year-old man is now a 92-year-old man with failing health.

3. Vic enjoyed his TV loud!  Really, really, really LOUD.  So when I would be in the middle of a test, and my customers could not hear the 'beeps' for Vic's choice movie's cursing and screaming beyond the door of my testing office,  I would tap on Vic's door - and ask him to please turn the volume down.  He would turn it down a notch or two, but not where it needed to be.  I lost sales.  I started scheduling fewer appointments and at times when I thought he would still be in bed sleeping.  GP tried frantically to help the situation by putting up thick curtains to cut down on the loud sounds coming into my office, but it did nothing.  I could not speak of my concerns to GP because an angry rant would ensue.

4. Eventually, I could breathe again, my good health returned, and everything was fine.  I worked around my less-than-good working surroundings.

5. There was never total privacy again.

6. RESPONSIBILITY for GP was almost more than he could bear.  Graphic and insulting details are withheld here...   but let's just say it's been rough.  Vic's last fall, a little over a week ago, was a wake-up call for all.  Vic needed more care than GP was able to give him.   

I waited outside Vic's room with GP, and I could hear Vic inside asking the nursing home worker if they were finished with him now.  They were.  When the door opened, we were greeted with a big smile.  I noted his frail image lying in the bed, and a feeling of peace swept over me.  "They're pretty good to me in here," Vic said.  "Yeah, it's not bad..."   We talked and laughed and shared some conversations with his roommate and family.  

When I go outside to take my dog to potty at night, I feel empty as I walk past his window.  There used to be life living inside that window.  A man I did not want to share my home with, but now it felt foreign to me to have him gone.  From the first day of his irritating entrance into my life, as he lay on that horn up until now, I grew to love the man who would change my world.  

God reminds me, no matter what --- be kind.  And God will do the rest.  And God has never let me down.

 UPDATE:

After a little over a year in the nursing home, Victor passed early Monday morning. The world does not seem the same. 

2007

2026

Spider Talk

I've changed. Let me explain.

Whether it be born in me or a thing that was learned from my mom who feared spiders greatly, the first thing I used to do when I'd see a spider is find a shoe. ~~ Squishy~~ Squishy ~ uh oh, bye-bye!

That was then. 

I have joined a Facebook group that identifies spiders and their purposes. Many being harmless, some - not so much. One thing is for sure though, these are spider lovers on this group and you best not comment that you used a shoe on one of the precious insects they study and love.

I have become particularly curious and enamored by the jumping spider, one I had been terrified of before now, and probably still would be if it were to jump on me! But listen - do an online search and see for yourself how cute they are. I mean...  some people have them for pets, make mini houses for them along with mini furnishings and everything. Not me. I'm not there yet. Probably never will be. 

However...

I am happy to announce that I now accept that I share space in this world with spiders but I will not accept that I share a house with them. That is why I purchased a catch and release device on TikTok shop that easily traps said bug and then releases it unharmed into its rightful habitat - OUTSIDE!

This guy an 'orb weaver' according to Chat GPT,
made his home on the side of our pool each
night after dark. I'd shine the light on him when
I'd take Bubbles out for her final potty - and 
there he was. The prettiest new web and like he was 
posing for me. I love the shadow showing behind
him. (or her). 

 

Bubbles says: Keep your eye on the ball!

 

~FIRST DAY~

Bubbles fell asleep watching me last night. That in itself is not a surprise. She usually does fall asleep watching me. For some reason, Bubbles thinks she cannot survive without knowing where I am at all times. If I get up and leave the room, she follows. It does not matter that she is in a deep sleep. She 'feels' my every move. 

Last night was different. She was spent from a day of doing her favorite thing. Well, one of her favorite things if not her favorite. 

It was the first day of swimming this season! So when I left the room for a minute, one eye cracked open for just a moment, then it was shut. I guess she figured her exhaustion trumped her need to track my every move.

 

Cemetery

There is something about Memorial Day that takes me back to a simpler time. It might be that the cemetery where we have our service that day is right across the road from where I grew up. I remember the cars lining the road on Memorial Day, and hearing the band playing Star Spangled Banner from my place on the limb of the big oak tree in our back yard where I'd sit and think.

Our Memorial Day service always gives me pause to think more about the sacrifice of all those who gave their life so that we could be free. It is emotional and you can't help but have a heart of gratitude. It is thoughtful and beautiful.

A day or so before I will first visit our local flower shop that the parents of an old high school friend owns, and I will buy flowers for my mom, dad, and grandparents. Then it's off to the cemetery to place them. I can look down over the hill and there's where I used to play tag, hopscotch, horseshoes, and other games with my siblings. 

Generally I forget to take the tags off of the flowers. How rude! Do you think Mom and Dad would care? I don't think so either. But I did remember to take them off this time. Just in case. 

Bubbles, Thoughts?

Yea. Can I take this cone of shame off yet?

 

SNEEZES

My cold feels a lot better today. Not 100% but definitely better. I was miserable this past week. On Friday I think I broke every record I ever had of total sneezes in one day. I do not exaggerate when I say I sneezed BIG SNEEZES at least 50 times that day. My head was running all over the place and I did not feel like doing anything. 

Bubbles, still in her cone of shame, was tolerating mediocre life well. She is used to heavy play throughout the day and she sure hasn't been getting it. Between husband and me both being sick at different times and her own very limited activity due to the cone... well... life has been dull for her.

GP (husband).  I like the initials. I think it adds mystery to his existence ;-) Anyway - GP woke up sick again today after being up all night. Oh no! Not again! My heart is heavy for him because he works so hard and he does so much. The pool is open and ready, thanks to his dedicated efforts to keep life flowing as smoothly as possible. Bubbles will be overjoyed to be jumping in that pool after a year of not understanding why no pool all of a sudden.

The last couple of days I've been giving Bubbles a break with the cone. All day without it, but then at night I put it on her. She is such a good girl. She jumps right up and offers her head for me to slip it over. She was truly heaven sent.

Bubbles, thoughts?

Gracie told me she has a lot of furrriends on here and that I should embrace the love and ... sorry guys... but she said I need to be a bit sassy to carry on in her absence. No can do, Gracie. I'm a lover not a fighter.

See Gracie's memory table in back?

I sleep now

I'm Hideous!

 So how is everybody doing with this new world of AI generated stuff? It's hard to get away from, right? 

This is something I discovered today with my Canva app: It will soften 'me' photos. Ha! 

Today's camera's be it phone or computer ---- have taken the liberty of making our mugshots way too crisp --- don't you agree? I mean, I can see age spots beneath my skin that I do not detect in a mirror. Now for those younger kiddos with the soft, beautiful skin that is flawless - sure - a sharp image is captivating. 

However.

For old people like myself, I am cringing at every single selfie. Maybe it's time to put the selfie stick away OR maybe AI can be an acquaintance, 'one' I call on for a little facial time and time again.

I'm hideous

That's better

Bubble's Thoughts:

You don't have a problem taking an embarrassing photo of me in this stupid lampshade, yet you'll go to extreme lengths to fix your own flaws. Gracie was right. We'll discuss this later. 

Laughing at Myself

I'm pretty sure I have husband's cold. Though he thought it was a side effect of the drug he was taking for cholesterol - and I thought so too - but now that I have 'it' I'm thinking maybe it's just a bug of some kind. Ugh.

What got me back into blogging? You ask.

Okay, you didn't ask. But I'm going to tell you anyway :-)  

Years ago I decided to have my blogs printed into volumes and books. 

Yes, I did. 

It was at a time when I was still working and had a little extra money to throw around. I barely looked at the books after they were made, but my daughter pulls them out and studies them often when she is here. 

Stay with me.

So after Gracie died I seldom blogged. She was my inspiration and the personality behind the entire blog. I felt like I had lost my identity and purpose. My heart. 

A few days ago, still looking for that peaceful place I once had when blogging, I pulled out one of the volumes and started reading. Several things clicked.

1. I enjoy my own writing. I found myself laughing at myself and boy, did I need that!

2. Gracie returned. Sassy and cute and larger than life.

3. Memories. They were all there. 

4. You. I missed you and your pets and your kindness and how you could make me laugh by sharing simple shenanigans of your pets. I missed knowing about your life. Watching you navigate life and often learning ways to better navigate my own life. 

5. And finally, there were those who had befriended me on blogger whom I grew to care for them deeply... who are gone. But their comments, those heartfelt, warming, and sometimes funny comments live on between the pages of each one of those book volumes GRACIE OWNS ME and GROWING OLD WITH GRACIE. 

Be still my heart.

I have found blogging to be getting to know a person from the inside out, and that's the best way! All other avenues of social media have been more the opposite. Does that make sense to you?  

Well. It does to me.

And that is why I am back.  Thank you for welcoming me back. 

My old computer crashed last week and I had to get a new one. So here's to hoping this one allows me to continue blogging and get back on track. 

Bubbles is Here

 On May 26 I had to take Bubbles in for a surgical removal of a lump/wart that had grown pretty big on her back. That same morning I awoke to a bloody faced dog. Yes, you heard that right. Bubbles had scratched her head so invaisively the night before while we were sleeping that she had a pretty bad spot on her head that needed attending to.

So. When I left her there at 8AM for surgery later that day, I was told by the tech that her head would be looked at as well.

I got a call from the vet an hour or so after noon and she said all went well with the surgery. Only one stitch and it would need to come out in two weeks. Addressing her head injury she prescribed an antibiotic and the cone of shame for at least 2 weeks or until her head heals. 

Bubbles is a real trooper when it comes to the cone, but those meds! 

On May 26, four years earlier, around the same time I picked Bubbles up from her surgery, I was walking into the same vet hospital with a dog whom I had spent the better part of eighteen years loving, to say goodbye. I was so broken.

But walking out of that hospital the same time, four years later, with Bubbles... I was reminded of God's love and how He gives us good gifts. 

Life goes on.

Gracie will be in my heart forever. And Bubbles is here now. For a while, hopefully a long while. 

HELLO FRIENDS. I'M BACK.

I keep coming back, checking on friends, looking at my old posts, and longing for those days again. I miss Gracie. I miss my blogging friends, some of who are no longer with us. And boy do I miss being younger! So I am going to try and start blogging again because it made me happy. Gracie is gone. But Bubbles is here. Let's see how this goes.

Throwback

 

Gracie and me

Journaling and God

 Who else keeps a journal?  

In my teenage years, I had diaries.  I wish I had saved those silly young girls' rants about boys, first kisses, and friends' loyalty and betrayal.  I do not remember ever getting rid of the diaries, but since I do not have them today, then I will assume that at some point in my life, I looked at them as secrets I wished no one else to know and sent the pages to die in the dumpster along with the sins of my past. 

Lately, God has been urging me to stop writing so much and start reviewing those journals I did hang on to from adulthood.  

Documenting everyday life and sharing thoughts, feelings, successes, and failures tends to release pressure from one's daily existence; hence, a volcano does not erupt from holding the mess of life inside.  And this:  in review, a journal can convict you - whether you acted rightly or wrongly - a journal review is like you become judge and jury of your past.  

I'm learning a lot about myself by going back into my journals.  I am also learning a lot about God's faithfulness.  I confess that life has not turned out as I had hoped. However, I have learned so much along the way.  And despite the perfect life I had charted for myself that did not pan out - God has been and is still there - directing my steps.  If I step out of line, I have no one to blame but myself.  And that's the beauty of following God and His will.  It is why God's chastisement for mistakes made can be gold if we learn something along the way.  

There is no better therapy than the truth God reveals if we open our hearts to Him.  

Upon leaving after watching Summer at a horseback riding
lesson last year, I came across this beautiful scene.  
God paints the best pictures.  

LIFE GOES ON AND WE MAKE THE BEST OF WHAT GOD HAS GIVEN US

 Bubbles had a vet appointment this morning.  Find out all about the results here. 

Today, I would like to talk to you about 'absence.'  You know... when someone has been there for such a long time, and now they are gone.  

My dad died at fifty-three years of age.  His absence left me sad.  At age sixty-nine, my mom died.  I missed her even more than my dad because she was with me longer.  A lot changed after she was gone.  

Nine years ago, I lost a sister and a brother, both in the same year.  I never realized losing a sibling would hurt so much.  But it did.  And their absence stings to this day.  

It will soon be three years since losing Gracie.  Oh, the emptiness that was left in our house with her absence.  

At night, when I take Bubbles outside, I pass Uncle Vic's window, and there is darkness in his apartment. I no longer hear his TV blaring or see him struggling to eat dinner at the kitchen table.  It does my heart good to know that I can still visit with him in the nursing home.  But his absence here at home hurts a little.  

Many people and pets, for one reason or another, become absent in our lives as time marches on.  Some people do fine with it.  Some medicate to help with sadness or sorrow or just life in general.  Some choose to drink or drug their way into feelings of comfort.  I prefer to feel the sadness. Something is cleansing and freeing in the spirit about feeling sad, crying, and moving on.  

When I examine my life now and compare it to ten years ago, I go to the final words of this incredible Bible verse:  

Psalm 30:5    ...  weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

And the joy that comes from God is better than any drug out there.  Its supernatural perfectness is what I want and seek more than anything else.  

Absence, I found, is okay.  When one door closes, another door opens.  When one person, dog, or pet is removed from your life, another enters, and your heart goes on.  And as long as God stays - you are never alone.   

My Grandma 

*Life Goes On *

If there is one thing I have learned about Google it's that...  once you put something online in the name of Google - it is almost impossible (for this ancient mind, anyway) to take it down.  I have been trying to clean up my various YouTube channels.  Yes, I have too many and here I am not remembering my email or passwords from 10+ years ago.  So well..  anyway.  

I come to blogger (thank you, Google for preserving all things Gracie) and everything is still as it was.  I started a new blog for Bubbles (our new baby) but I have not been consistent in growing it or updating it.  I like Blogger because I feel comfortable here, writing my thoughts, sharing my photos, and interacting with long-lost friends who do not care if my punctuation is off or if I am foolishly writing about silly, everyday stuff.  That's what life is all about.

*sigh*

I was so hurt to lose Gracie, I wanted to put it all behind me.  But Bubbles has helped me to conclude that my Gracie days are not over at all. She lives on in my heart, just as many of my family and friends do - who have passed on from this life. 

Memories are a beautiful thing and today I am reviewing old journals, both prayer journals and daily journals. I intend to do this for a while because I believe that is what God is leading me to do. Going back five, ten, or even twenty-some years - I can see so much about who I was and how God worked to bring me clarity and vision on how to go forward each day despite my weaknesses and sins and be better. 

Still, every morning I need to examine my ways, thoughts, and life in general and ask God to reveal to me the stuff of life that will draw me closer to Him and away from myself. Keeping a journal is a good way to document God's faithfulness and it is great at showing me that I'm not all I felt I was cracked up to be. Haha!

I miss my girl Gracie. I'm looking for Bubbles 'voice' to share. But so far there are only two loving eyes watching my every move and frantically following me from room to room to make sure I do not get out of her sight.

I hope this year finds happiness and contentment for all.

BUBBLES

GRACIE.  MINUTES BEFORE LEAVING THIS LIFE.

A Little Christmas Blog Post

Christmas time I think of Gracie.  After all, she spent seventeen Christmases with us.  That's a lot.  We put her under the tree with the rest of the gifts when she was a baby.  After all, she was my Christmas present that year.  She was the best one I have ever received, to be honest.  

That first Christmas was filled with such happiness.  We had just purchased our bargain home for $39,000 so we could *ahem* get a dog.  It didn't need much work because it belonged to a meticulous older lady who left the place spotless and beautiful.  We did finish the basement though, and oh, what a wonderful place of recreation that turned out to be for us and our new dog.  

I remember ordering the off-white plush carpet to be installed before we moved in, and then, the white dog weeks later.  White carpet and white dog went together like...  WAIT...  

Now if Gracie were here, she would have a different story.  But I am here to share that potty training that little stinker took over a year.  It seemed I was constantly on my hands and knees scrubbing that white carpet. 

The pages of time seem to turn more quickly as we get older.  Before I knew it, our bargain home had been sold to buy a home that we could turn into a business along a busy highway.  Gracie didn't mind the move.  She was adventurous like that. 

Fast forward to the end of that chapter.  The part where Gracie would be leaving us and my heart would break so tragically that I did not know how there could be another chapter going forward.  I could not remember life without her, so how could I think of tomorrow with no white dog hanging around.  

Gracie's last Christmas

HAPPY HEAVENLY BIRTHDAY GRACIE

 Getting a puppy helped with my grief after losing Gracie.  There was no doubt about it; I needed a distraction from the pain.  Bubbles offered that distraction.  As she grew, I fell hopelessly in love.  

But I'm not here to talk about Bubbles.  Had she lived another two years, Gracie would have been twenty years old today.  

I miss so much about her.  This was her favorite time of year when the days cooled, and we would walk along the quiet of the towpath, me drinking in the beauty of God's nature and she, nose to the ground, sniffing out the things God provided for her enjoyment.  She wasn't anxiety-ridden and afraid like our new dog is.  Gracie was ready for an adventure and afraid of very little.  She might try to pick a fight with a dog or two along the way, but still, no fear.  

She was heroic in that she never gave up trying to enjoy life.  Even when she could barely stand alone, she was ready for her next walk.  

Happy Heavenly birthday, sweet girl.  You are missed and loved.

FOREVER YOUNG 

LOOK-A-LIKE

Maybe getting a dog that looks so much like Gracie was a mistake.  Maybe not.  

I find myself comparing them a lot, which is unfair. To my advantage, Bubbles pays little attention to this fact as long as she is loved, fed, exercised, and loved some more. 

Dogs are good like that.  

I believe Bubbles is grateful that Gracie paved the way for her --- for example, Tennis courts.

Gracie loved the tennis courts.  And if possible, I'd say Bubbles loves playing at the tennis courts even more!  I miss Gracie and her ways.  But this little Gracie look-a-like has won me over, and there is room in my heart for both - and for all of the pets I ever owned. 

GRACIE

BUBBLES